"The Calming of Santa"

Time is illusive. Constantly passing regardless of our awareness it remains as either faithful friend or relentless foe. Perhaps it's passing is no more evident than in the marking of holidays and of those, Christmas is likely most vulnerable. There are so many traditions and so much "at stake" (in the mind of a child) that Christmas is the "biggie" in terms of identifying how things change.

Last night there were no arguments nor even an suggestions made about when to go to bed. Both girls willingly ascended the stairs at their own bidding and under their own compulsion. The younger declared 8:00am as the appropriate time to awake on this Christmas morning. I was up at 6:30am, Mom, Nanny and Papa not far behind me. As promised, the girls came down around 8:00 and we casually made our way over to the stockings (hung by the chimney with care). That gave way to eventual gift giving.

I broke the agreement I made with my wife to put nothing in each other's stockings so she's armed to assault S'Bucks on a new gift card and will have plenty of chewing gum as well to deal with post-venti breath. As agreed, my stocking was empty.

What only a few years ago took nearly two hours to accomplished is now expedited in less than 30 minutes. Gift opening has evolved expeditiously. I don't believe we're spending any less in these growing years of life, I think it is just that the same amount of money simply doesn't go as far in the world of young fashion clothing and high-tech electronics. Alert the media, we're officially out of kid-Christmas mode. We're playing on an entirely different field now!

Rather than kids playing with toys after the ripped wrapping paper carnage, this year all the family members gathered around the family room belting out songs on the new Karaoke set up. New kinds of fun in a new stage of being family. It all seems so, I don't know... mature.

In some ways today evidenced the "calming of Santa" and as a guy who used to try to fill some semblance of his shoes, that's just fine with me. I think it is time to take nap!

Merry Christmas, one and all.